Project: Classroom Success Stories

Tell us about a specific lesson, activity, resource, or strategy you used to help students be successful with a specific instructional challenge area. ​​We work with contributors to turn a Success Story into resources that so that other classrooms can replicate the same success.
What do we look for in a Success Story?
Your submission idea is more likely to turn into a payable project if you keep the following guidelines in mind.

1. Understand who we are, what we do, and why we do it.

​Make sure you’ve read the About Us page. That will tell you what we consider to be the effective instructional practices and frameworks we want to share with the educators who use our products. If your Success Story doesn’t align with our understanding of best practices, then it is very likely that we won't be able to move forward with it as a payable project.

2. Make sure your Success Story addresses a specific subject, grade level, and topic.

Your Success Story should address a specific topic for the grade level and subject area of your submission (e.g. "Text Evidence" or "Linear Equations"). The good news is that we've already identified important topics for the subjects of ELA, Math, and Behavior/SEL at each grade level. You can find them on Goalbook Pathways here:

Browse Topics in Goalbook Pathways

3. Make sure you have identified a specific learning challenge within the topic.

Your Success Story should get even more specific by zeroing in on a specific challenge within the topic you've selected. For example, if your topic is "Text Evidence" for 7th Grade ELA, your Success Story could focus on the challenge of explaining evidence: HOW the evidence a student selects specifically supports his or her overall claim in an argument.

4. Describe the most impactful element of your instruction.

What was the "secret ingredient" to your success in supporting students with the specific learning challenge you identified? If other educators wanted to replicate your success, what is the most important thing for them to know about what you did? Focus your Success Story on that. Please do not describe an entire lesson or unit. 

5. We prioritize effectiveness and best-practice, not originality.

We are looking for actual instruction that worked, not hype. It's okay if you feel that your Success Story highlights an established best practice and may not be "new" or "original." We believe that just because a practice is new or unique, doesn't mean that it is effective or better. Also, just because something is established and well-known doesn't mean it is ineffective or outdated. 

6. Don't forget to send us your evidence of practice.

​Please do not spend time creating anything just for the purpose of submission! Our intention is for the submission phase to be very quick and easy for contributors since we do not pay for submissions. We are more interested in learning about what you actually did or used that worked. This not only validates your submission, but also helps us better understand the instruction that took place. Here are some examples of the type of evidence we look for:
  • Student work 
  • Resources or materials used during the instruction (soft copy or photos)
Please do not send lessons plans, unit plans, pacing guides, or scope and sequence documents. They tell us about instruction, they don't show us instruction. If you have multiple potential pieces of evidence to send, please send the one you feel best captures the most impactful element of your instruction. 


All set? We'd love to hear from you!
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You can send us more than one Submission at a time.